What does Purdah really mean?

Posted by Chris Lowe on 31 March 2010

Everyone expects Gordon Brown to visit the Queen on Tuesday 6 April to ask her to dissolve Parliament so that a General Election can be held on Thursday 6 May.

Once Parliament is dissolved, there are no longer any MPs, merely Parliamentary Candidates, but because government must continue, Ministers remain in place.  This period is known as ‘Purdah’ and the civil service ensures that there are no announcements of any political significance after this date. 

The Cabinet Office is instructing that the Purdah guidelines are going to be even more stringent this time around (presumably because of the possibility of a change of government) and that they will be strictly applied to all governmental bodies including non-Departmental Public Bodies.

Once the election is called, the Cabinet Office will issue specific instructions.  Looking at the 2005 version of these, the key notes are as follows.

During an Election campaign, the Government retains its responsibility to govern, and Ministers remain in charge of their Departments.  Essential business must be carried on.  However, it is customary for Ministers to observe discretion in initiating any new action of a continuing or long-term character.  Decisions on matters of policy on which a new Government might be expected to want the opportunity to take a different view from the present Government should be postponed until after the Election, provided that such postponement would not be detrimental to the national interest or wasteful of public money.

Also of particular interest are the sections relating to government communications:

The general principle governing communication activities during a General Election is to do everything possible to avoid competition with parliamentary candidates for the attention of the public.  In addition, it has always been recognised that special care must be taken during the course of an Election since material produced with complete impartiality which would be accepted as objective in ordinary times, may excite criticism during an Election period when feelings are running high.

Departmental communications staff may therefore properly continue to discharge during the Election period their normal function only to the extent of providing factual explanation of current Government policy, statements and decisions.  They must be particularly careful not to become involved in a partisan way in Election issues.

On Consultations

In general, consultations should not be launched during the election period.  As soon as an election is called, policy teams should delay the launch of new consultations until the result is officially declared.  If there are exceptional circumstances where launching a consultation is considered essential (for example, for safeguarding public health), express permission should be sought from the Propriety and Ethics Team in the Cabinet Office.

Since policy officials cannot be expected to surmise when a General Election will take place, Departments should continue to launch consultation as normal until an election is formally declared.

If a consultation is ongoing at the time an election is called, it should continue as normal, and for the standard 12 week period.  However, Departments should not take any steps during an election period that will compete with parliamentary candidates for the public’s attention.  This effectively means a ban on publicity for those consultations that are still in process.

During the election period, departments may continue to receive and analyse responses with a view to putting proposals to the incoming Government but they should not make any statement or generate publicity during this period.


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